Inside Science Weekly Newsletter

View in browser This week, our team at Inside Science delivered stories about how climate change is shifting layers of the atmosphere and about the first continents to emerge above the ocean's surface. The former is about data from the past 40 years, while the latter describes something that happened about 3.3 billion years ago. Researchers examined volcanic and sedimentary rocks from eastern India and found that the first big pieces of continental rocks surfaced more than 700 million years earlier than researchers had thought. They also found that these early cratons, as geologists call them, weren't pushed above sea level by plate tectonics. In fact, they probably floated on top of magma. Both stories are on our website now. We'll have more stories for you soon on a wide variety of topics, including animal hearing and research that connects climate change and wine. —Chris Gorski, Senior Editor Featured Story Earth's First Continents May Have Appeared Earlier Than Previously Thought New study examines rare sedimentary rocks atop some of the planet's oldest large land masses. By Charles Q. Choi, Contributor Inside Science's Latest Stories Climate Change is Raising the Top of the Troposphere The top of the troposphere, the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, has climbed about 50 to 60 meters per decade in the past 20 years. By Will Sullivan, Staff Writer Evidence Shows Humans May Have Introduced Now-Extinct Wolf to the Falkland Islands Fox-like dog described by first Europeans to visit the remote islands was an ecological anomaly. By Joshua Learn, Contributor The Earth's Equatorial Bulge Shapes the Planet's Physics Meteorologists, oceanographers and snipers have to account for this deformation. By Will Sullivan, Staff Writer Other Popular Stories from Inside Science Synchronized Heart Rate and Skin Conductivity Show Blind Daters' True Feelings Katharine Gammon, Contributor What Do Shrink-Wrapped Thanksgiving Turkeys and the Higgs Boson Have in Common? Catherine Meyers, Editor [Video] Heavy Metal Singers are Big Babies Jason Socrates Bardi, Editor What We're Reading Serious about climate change? Get serious about peat. By William Booth, Washington Post This is a brilliant story about the easily overlooked ecological star known as peat. To spoil a quote from the piece, it's a "superhero of the natural world." What's impressive about this soggy, dense, earthy material is that it stores so much carbon. As officials from around the world meet this week in Glasgow to discuss the options that can and should be taken to reduce human-caused climate change, peat too may be at a crucial point. Keeping bogs and marshes wet and intact is an important part of keeping carbon in peat and out of the atmosphere. Physicists say they've finally solved the teapot effect -- for real this time By Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica Why does tea dribble down the side of a teapot when you're pouring it? Researchers have tackled this question before, but a new research paper explains more about the factors that contribute to the process. They even look at the contribution of gravity -- and how the effect might manifest on the moon and the International Space Station. It's all interesting stuff, but I'll soon scour the paper to see if they have any tips regarding how to make sure this doesn't happen when I make stovetop espresso (a definite perk of working from home!). Here's how ice needles sculpt patterns into cold, rocky landscapes By Beth Geiger, Science News As ice freezes and thaws it can form a variety of patterns in rocks and soil. Researchers simulated several cycles of defrosting and refreezing, and showed how so-called ice needles interact with the surrounding material. That's what drives the formations that develop -- the pictures are definitely worth checking out. Read More from Inside Science Copyright 2021 American Institute of Physics. Inside Science syndicates its articles, columns, blogs and videos to news organizations. To initiate syndication, or request permission to republish our content (on a one-time or continuing basis), please contact Inside Science at insidescience@aip.org. News organizations seeking permission to republish Inside Science content must fully credit Inside Science as the original source of the content, include the author byline, and republish the original, unaltered form (excluding content titles, headlines, or sub-headlines). The reprint format can be seen here. Copyright conditions and usage terms are subject to change at any time without consent or any type of prior notice. To unsubscribe from all future mailings from Inside Science please click here. To manage your email subscriptions please click here. Inside Science is an editorially independent news service of the American Institute of Physics © 2021 American Institute of Physics 1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 About Inside Science | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Reprint Rights | Email alerts | Underwriters